Can you pay too little for your packaging design?

At what point does paying too little for your packaging design cost you money?

Can you pay too little for your packaging design? Brand managers and marketers are frequently caught between opposing imperatives: deliver increasing returns on shelf while simultaneously reducing costs. As corporations increasingly cut budgets and look to shrink their COGS, the need for creative or innovative solutions to achieving sell thru from the shelf becomes even more important. Hence the constant push to get their packaging design costs down. How far should you go? Can you end up sacrificing compelling packaging for a low COGS?

How much is too much to pay for Wow!?

What is a reasonable expectation with regard to the cost and delivery of “effective creative” design services? How do you know whether you are paying too much? When should you look to shop around and seek out a new design agency or even how do you “yardstick” your current agency?

Creativity and innovation are the keys to any successful event or endeavor in the corporate or small business world. Everyone wants “Wow!’, yet how many are prepared to pay for it? Without wow, you just get ordinary. I’m sure there isn’t a brand manager or marketer or salesperson on the planet who would be truly happy with just ordinary sales when they could be getting Wow!

Can you pay too little to hire a live musician?

Are skilled musicians underpaid? Or is this just a fact of life (or “supply and demand”) in the Age of Free? Today musicians, like designers, are increasingly frustrated by their ever shrinking business and the lack of perceived value for their live musical performance.

Have you ever been to a live event, a wedding, Christmas party, engagement, 21st birthday party where the music vibe was ordinary? How was that? Then haven’t you also had the experience of going to an event which was simply…Wow! It blew your socks off. Which musician would you rather have paid for?

No matter how awesome the venue or the food or even the company, most often it’s the entertainment that creates the memorable event.

In a recent social media post called “What You Get When You Hire a Live Musician”. The post presented a long list of features. It listed everything you get and listed the single item as to what you really want. What you want is: Someone to perform some music. What you get is ….:

Years of study and practice

Tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear and instruments

Transportation to and from your venue

Labor to set up and strike down

Continual education

A breadth of knowledge of styles and specific music

The ability and experience to entertain an audience

Can you pay too little for creativity?

Yes, true creativity is an expensive endeavor. Often the tighter the budget the more creativity you require to get the job done. Creativity is often a vital ingredient to achieving the end result, and creativity costs money. Creativity must be factored into your budgets, always. Paying for creativity is worth it because in the end, it’s what you need to ensure that you have the outcome designed for the perfect audience whilst achieving all of your KPI’s without having sacrificed your original plan.

More than simply pretty pictures, package design is a highly complex process which begins way before the designer ever sets pen to paper, (or mouse to screen for that matter).

In the end it comes down to perception. The perception between what a client believes they should be paying for and how much the design actually does cost to produce. This perception, like all others is directly related to how well brand marketers truly understand the process and all that goes into the creation and development of an effective package design.

Packaging design matters

The look and feel of the packaging has a direct impact on whether your target customer notices your product and places it the shopping cart. The choice of material or form that is selected not only affects consumers choices but also the production costs, shipping and attrition costs.

It’s also no secret that the packs first real audience is the supermarket buyer. These corporate buyers will determine whether or not your product even makes it to the shelf. Buyers can be even more picky than your target customer and will often reject your product based on the packaging.

developing a compelling package design that surprises and delights on shelf

creating a pack that ends up in the shopping trolley as opposed to the pack of your competition

designing a pack that grabs the attention of demanding retailers and distributors

creating a pack that targeted customers want to share via social media

then simply shopping around for the cheapest designer just won’t cut it. That’s not to say you should overpay for your packaging design because there is a fine line…but maybe that’s a subject for another post another time.

To discover how you can get Wow design at real value for money prices contact us HERE.